MCU Phase 4: Predicting Every Major Character That Will Join

9. Moon Knight

Marvel Comics/Ryan Stegman

First Appearance: Werewolf by Night #32

Although Moon Knight is perhaps more suited to the R-rated confines of Marvel's Netflix TV shows, Kevin Feige indicated just the other week that the character, as well as some of Marvel's mature properties, could join the films instead. In which case, a resurrection of the now-defunct Marvel Knights banner could be on the cards, and with other, more adult characters waiting in the wings too, Moon Knight's ascendance to the MCU could spark a new direction for other Marvel Studios works to follow.

For those not in the know, Moon Knight (real name Marc Spector) is one of Marvel's street-level of heroes. He's also one of their more unstable, starting out life as a fairly shameful Batman rip-off before taking on an identity of his own as a genuinely unique and compelling vigilante in the thrall of Egyptian Moon God Konshu.

Most important of all, however, is that Moon Knight represents a real chance for Marvel to have a genuine conversation about vigilantism. He's not a hero - at least not in the traditional sense - and with an unspeakably violent past to his name, he's also the kind of character that can only be depicted through the lens of an R-Rating.

This isn't to say that Marvel should divest from their PG-13 efforts - of course not - but it would be nice to see a more heterogenous slate for the future. If reports are also true that Ben Wheatley has been tapped for a Marvel Studios project, then the director look no further than Moon Knight - he's tailor-made for the character.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.